Copper end use trends

The Irish Republic's economy has fallen into recession after shrinking for a second quarter in succession.

The renewable technology has become so popular that police in California are seeing a massive increase in stolen panels from around the more than 33,000 installations in the state.

Sumitomo Electric Industries, the Japan based wire and cable manufacturer, has announced plans to provide its newly-developed aluminium wire harnesses to Toyota, for use in the Yaris subcompact, from 2011. Although the new product in 20-25% larger than a conventional copper wire harness, it weighs roughly 40% less because aluminium is lighter, thus improving vehicle efficiency of vehicles. With the price of aluminium presently very low relative to copper, the new aluminium wire harness should also reduce costs.

TOKYO (Nikkei)--Sumitomo Electric Industries Ltd. (5802) plans to begin supplying its newly developed aluminum-based wire harness to Toyota Motor Corp. (7203) in 2011 for use in the Yaris subcompact.

MELBOURNE -(Dow Jones)- BHP Billiton Ltd. (BHP) has boosted the size of the copper and uranium resource at its giant Olympic Dam mine in South Australia state, which is slated for a multibillion dollar expansion.

Bloomsbury Metals Economics Christopher Welch warned Tuesday that "everything that could go wrong is going wrong" in copper mine production, as new copper projects are not meeting production expectations

BHP Billiton is disappointed by today's High Court decision on the definition of 'production process'

Siemon launches a new whitepaper by respected data center infrastructure expert Carrie Higbie. Entitled "Comparing Copper and Fiber Options in the Data Center," this detailed whitepaper and accompanying video is available for download at: http://www.siemon.com/go/cvf

Russia"s metals giant Norilsk Nickel and the world"s largest mining company BHP Billiton have formed a joint venture to explore for minerals in Russia.

Tom Albanese took over last year as the head of one of the world's biggest mining groups. But after an aggressive start to his tenure with the $44bn acquisition of aluminium group Alcan, the 50-year-old chief executive found himself on the defensive after another mining heavyweight - Marius Kloppers of BHP Billiton - launched a $160bn hostile bid for Rio Tinto.

Low labor costs could lead to relocations of large producers coupled with the depreciation of the national currency leu. It could boost exporters' business despite negative impact on consumption, the report said, citing Lucian Anghel, chief economist of the Romanian Commercial Bank.

Rio Tinto and General Electric today announced that they are working together on two key strategic technology projects, Rio Tinto's 'Mine of the Future™' and GE's 'Ecomagination'", to develop the most energy efficient and ecologically friendly solutions to support the future of mining.

However engineers and scientists at The University of Texas at Austin have made a breakthrough in the development of a new carbon-based material that they believe might allow for at least a doubling of current electricity storage capabilities. The new structure is called grapheme, and measures in at one atom thick

"A decade ago, there were 1.1billion pounds of brass rod consumed in the United States. This year, it's projected to be about 600million pounds," said the President of Chase Brass. Recent years have seen increasing numbers of manufacturers of copper and brass product moving their operations overseas to low-cost locations such as China. A representative of the United Steel Workers union said, "We went through the 1980's and the 1990's recessions and never really felt it here, but for the last decade we've really felt it." According to the union, Chase has struggled to secure consistent supplies of scrap due to fierce competition from overseas. Chase claims that its Montpelier, Ohio facility is among the most technologically advanced and efficient brass plants in the world, but it has difficulty, "competing against Chinese brass facilities that are subsidised by that country's central government." Chase Brass is presently owned by KPS Capital Partners, a private equity firm, who bought the company last November.

Crane Group, an Australian non-ferrous metals and plastic products manufacturer and distributor, announced revenue for the year ended 30th June 2008 of AUD$2,352m, a year-on-year increase of 7.6%. Net profit after tax before significant items rose to AUD$63.8m, an improvement of 18.2% on last year, thanks to strong results from the firm's plastic piping and distribution arms, Pipelines and Tradelink. Crane Copper Tube, the Group's non-ferrous metals division, reported EBIT of AUD$4.0m compared with a loss of AUD$2.5m last year. Revenue was up 2% to AUD$142m as stronger export sales helped offset subdued demand from the domestic plumbing market, according to Crane Group. "The lean manufacturing programme progressively introduced at CCT over the past two years continues to provide benefits in both productivity and working capital efficiency," said the company.

CHITA, September 10 (RIA Novosti) - A commission at Russia's mineral regulator has granted the Mikhailovsky mining company a license to develop a large copper field, Udokan, in East Siberia, a local government official said on Wednesday.

Johannesburg - Preliminary figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum show that global stainless steel crude steel production decreased in the first half of 2008 by 1.8 percent compared with the previous year. The drop in output was 2.9 percent in the first quarter but just 0.6 percent in the second and all major regions have recorded lower production volumes. The smallest drop came from Western Europe and Africa, which together represent the world's second largest producing area, after it reported a 0.8 percent decrease in stainless steel production during the first six months of 2008. Total production was 4.9 million tonnes for the half year.

Rio Tinto has announced the return to service of its Car Dumper 2 at Cape Lambert and the resumption of full operations at the port.